DANNY PUT HIS arm around Dora’s shoulders as they entered her parents’ home. Its silent emptiness reproached him for harboring lustful thoughts about Dora, instead of grieving for his wife and child. He pulled his arm away.
What was going on in his head? All of a sudden he couldn’t think straight. Maybe it was the drugs Doc Halman had given him.
He sank down onto the couch. Dora joined him. From the corner of his eye, he snuck a glance at her. A solitary lamp illuminated her face, casting an earthy glow across her features. Despite himself, something stirred deep within him. It was disgustingly out of place. He shut his eyes, feeling as if he’d sinned. His wife was dead. He’d never see her again. How could he want her sister?
Today was the best and the worst day of his life. He’d had it all for one brief moment. In the next, his world had collapsed. Now he felt as if he’d fallen into a dark well. Like fingers slipping on smooth bricks, his searching thoughts couldn’t grasp at certainty.
Cameos flashed through his consciousness: Cathy’s sparkling curls, her tinkling laugh, the day at the flower shop when they’d made love on the floor. His cheeks grew wet as he remembered the sight of Sean in the hospital bed, nuzzled at his mother’s breast. He pressed his lids tight, fruitlessly trying to hold back the tears. His baby hadn’t had a chance.
More pictures flashed through his mind. He couldn’t halt their progression. The last time he’d seen his sweetheart, she’d looked like an angel, with the sunlight glittering off her strawberry curls. An angel. That’s what he’d always thought of her. The analogy sent a shiver down his spine.
In the midst of the throbbing pain, he struggled to find meaning, but couldn’t. If someone were to be taken, it should have been him. He was the sinner who’d plotted for years to kill another man.
Cathy’s body had exploded. In the blink of an eye, she’d been catapulted from this world to the next. Had she known she was dying? He hoped not. He couldn’t bear the thought of Cathy in pain.
Still, no evidence of Sean had been found. In the back of his mind, a tiny ray of hope still glimmered. Maybe his baby had survived. Perhaps someone had taken Sean out of the house before the blast. If so, where was he?
Danny shook his head, realizing his mind had reverted back to that day when he’d hoped in vain for his sister to reappear. Now, like then, he found it hard to grasp the finality of death.
His wife and child were gone. He must accept that fact and go on. A clamp closed around his heart and he felt suffocated.
Trying to get his bearings, he glanced around the tastefully appointed living room. He’d almost forgotten where he was.
Absently he noted Cathy’s sister still sitting beside him, staring ahead, also lost in misery.
Their eyes connected and she seemed to come out a trance. “I better try again for my parents.” Her breath caught in a sob. “I don’t want them to hear about it on the radio first.”
Danny shuddered. His heart went out to Dora, who was facing a difficult task. He’d offer to break the news, but he knew her parents would rather hear it from their own flesh and blood.
The phone rang on the coffee table. Dora’s hand shook as she reached to pick it up. She took a deep breath. “Mom, I was just trying to call. I wanted to tell you myself. No, there’s no mistake. It was Cathy and the baby.”
Fresh tears flowed down Dora’s face. Danny pictured Nancy McGuire sobbing on the other end of the line.
Dora swallowed and continued. “I’m in shock. I still can’t believe it. Yes, I’ve got Danny here with me right now. He has nowhere to go and he looks exhausted.”
What did it matter where he went? He didn’t care about the loss of his home. That was easily replaced. His family was another matter. Cathy and Sean could never come back. Now he had no one. Maybe he should book a room at a hotel. He shouldn’t be alone with Dora. It didn’t seem right.